Vote Kelly for Oil Industry Subsidies
April 27, 2012
by Michael Bryan Jesse Kelly notoriously and repeatedly, and falsely, claims that the U.S. has more oil than Saudi Arabia. This has several implications that need examination. First, his fact-free sloganeering indicates that Kelly doesn't really give a crap about reality or facts. Nor is he interested in offering real solutions to kitchen-table problems of … Read more
The Middle of the Road Where the Road is Supposed To Be
April 27, 2012
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Posted by Bob Lord
I’ve said this before — I bristle at empty platitudes. One we hear all the time is how our discourse is too polarized and how we need politicians to move to the center, with the clear implication that splitting the difference between the two “poles” is definitively the place to be. And, so, over the past three decades, as the entire spectrum on economic issues moved further and further right, with the perceived center moving right along, what used to be considered “fringe” right became center. Because center is presumptively the ideal place to be, as the spectrum moves over time, wacko becomes eminently sane.
And sane becomes wacko. Check out this link to a short piece in yesterday’s Guardian (it‘s a quick read):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/apr/26/earth-population-consumption-disasters
John McCain’s flip-flop-flip on the GOP War on Women
April 27, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: In an interview on Meet The Press Gregory in March, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) slammed the GOP assault on working women, and even urged his fellow Republicans to finally end their lengthy war on women’s reproductive health. Think Progress reported After Backing Anti-Birth Control Blunt Amendment, McCain Now Says GOP Needs To … Read more
KPHO TV News 5 is just sayin’
April 27, 2012
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by David Safier
KPHO TV News has a story, AZ lawmakers benefit from own bills. The story names 7 legislators who have sponsored bills that benefit them personally, usually by helping their businesses. My perennial favorite on the list is Sen. Steve Yarbrough who sponsors and supports tuition tax credit bills which put a whole lot of dollar bills in his pocket.
Six of the seven have one thing in common. They're Republicans: Frank Pratt, Steve Urie, Justin Pierce, Karen Fann, Steve Yarbrough and Jack Harper. All of them have businesses whose lives are made a little lot easier courtesy of their legislation.
The lone Democrat is Debbie McCune Davis. Her bill would make it mandatory for parents to talk with a doctor before they can refuse vaccinations for their children. Her special interest? She directs an organization advocating for immunizations. Call me a partisan, but counseling parents about the value of immunizations for their children is more in the public interest than, say, Frank Pratt sponsoring a bill to get rid of swimming pool motor efficiency standards. His business? Pratt's Pools, which, according to the story, doesn't deal in energy efficient pool motors.
You can watch the story below the fold.
Fact Checking the mendacity of ‘Mittens’
April 27, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Steve Benen's latest instalment of fact checking the pathological liar, Willard "Mittens" Romney. Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XV: After winning several more presidential primaries this week, Mitt Romney delivered a speech his campaign billed as the unofficial kickoff of the general election. And while making his pitch as the presumptive Republican nominee, … Read more
Air war to begin in CD 8 Special Election
April 27, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The Arizona Republic reported in Political tidbits today: TV ads are beginning to flood the airwaves in one of the hottest congressional campaigns in the country: the race in southern Arizona to fill the remaining months of former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' term. The National Republican Congressional Committee threw the first punch … Read more
Fact Check: Jesse Kelly’s ‘pants on fire’ – U.S. has 1/10 the oil ‘reserves’ as those of Saudi Arabia
April 27, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Washington Post's fact checker Glenn Kessler has his Pinocchios, and Annenberg's PolitiFact has it truth-o-meter that goes goes up to "pants on fire!" lie. Blog for Arizona has "the kid" with his own "pants on fire" rating.
Tucson Weekly editor jimmy Boegel this week calls out Tea-Publican candidate for the CD 8 Special Election, Jesse Kelly, for his lie about U.S. oil production. Editor's Note | Tucson Weekly:
When did it become acceptable for a candidate for office to flat-out lie?
I have been pondering this query ever since Jesse Kelly—the GOP choice for Congressional District 8—started claiming that the United States has more oil than Saudi Arabia, and therefore, it's unacceptable for Americans to be paying $4 a gallon for gasoline.
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It is fact—provable, verifiable, absolute fact—that the U.S. circa 2012 does not have the oil that Jesse Kelly claims it does. This is not a matter of spin or nuance or shades of gray or anything that is debatable. Period. It's a fact. Even if you stretch and extend to cover oil shale, the United States today does not have the technology to get usable oil from it.
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I use the Jesse Kelly example just because it's one of the more-prominent and more-recent examples. No matter the party or the politics, when someone starts spreading blatant, verifiable falsehoods, other public servants and civic-minded folks have a duty to call bullshit. Period.
Words to live by. But you are going to need way more information than this blurb from the Weekly.
Flake and Carmona on VAWA?
April 27, 2012
With the passage of the Violence Against Women Act in the Senate, with Kyl voting No and McCain voting Yes, the obvious question for those seeking Kyl’s seat is how they would have voted. I have absolutely no doubt that Carmona would have voted Yes. How would Jeff Flake have voted?
